Roland Garros hails new hero as Sinner makes shock exit

Roland Garros hailed a new hero as 17-year-old Moise Kouame became the youngest man for nearly 40 years to reach the third round of the French Open.

The teenager, who only celebrated his birthday in March, had never played a best-of-five sets match before this week but he battled for almost five hours to defeat Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-3 7-5 3-6 2-6 7-6 (10/8).

Not since a 16-year-old Michael Chang reached the last 32 in 1988 has anyone so young made it this far, while Kouame is the youngest man since Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon back in 2003 to make the third round at any grand slam.

The cheers for Kouame, ranked 318, could be heard all around Roland Garros, with thousands of people watching the dramatic denouement on big screens at the venue as well as those packed into Court Suzanne Lenglen.

"The public gave me a lot of energy to keep going physically and mentally," he said. "Probably without them, it would maybe be another story. So I'm really happy to have them."

Kouame is already a charismatic performer and he celebrated big moments by putting his finger to his ear and extending his arm to the crowd.

"In practice, I practise those kind of things," he said. "It’s something I’ve always dreamed to do, get the crowd going and making a bit of a show on court."

Not since Yannick Noah in 1983 has a French player claimed the men’s singles title at Roland Garros and it is fitting that Kouame’s breakthrough comes at the same tournament where Gael Monfils bade farewell.

Monfils was part of a supposed golden generation of French talent – with the 39-year-old, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon dubbed the new musketeers – but they could not claim a slam title between them.

Kouame is not limiting his ambitions, saying: "Winning Roland Garros is, of course, a dream, but winning all four (slams) is a dream actually. Being world number one is also a dream.

"Thinking about winning the tournament is a bit early, I think. But I’m really happy to be in the third round, of course, and I’m going to try my best to win another match."

With Sinner’s shock loss, this is now a huge opportunity for all the remaining men in the draw.

Kouame’s fellow teenagers Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca reached round three on Wednesday while 20-year-old Martin Landaluce is another young star on the rise and he fought back from two sets down to defeat Vit Kopriva 1-6 2-6 6-4 7-5 6-0.

Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime’s hopes are still alive after he came from a set down to defeat Roman Andres Burruchaga 4-6 6-0 7-5 6-1 but fifth seed Ben Shelton is out after losing 6-4 7-5 6-4 to Raphael Collignon of Belgium.